时间预算与狩猎采集技术

在史前研究中,我们会发现不同地区的技术会有明显差异。比如在整个更新世,华北地区的旧石器显示不断精致化的趋势,在旧石器时代晚期出现了细石器,并扩散到青藏高原以及整个东北亚和西北美。而华南地区的旧石器技术和类型一直很少变化,以粗大的砾石工业为主。对于这种现象,我们常常从文化传统角度来解释,认为是不同的人群和技术传统造成了这种差异。还有,随着全新世初定居和农耕经济的开始,全球范围内的史前石器技术显示出一种普遍衰退的迹象,比较精致的打制技术被砸击技术所取代。托伦斯这篇文章从时间预算的角度为石器技术差异和变化的解释提供了一个崭新的视角,认为精致技术的发展是在时间压力之下,狩猎采集者为了减少觅食失败而加大技术投入的结果。这种具有时间压力的生存方式一般以狩猎为特点,因为猎物迁徙季节性强或转瞬即逝,所以必须加大技术投入确保狩猎成功,以免空手而归所造成的灾难性后果。这种技术精致的现象往往随纬度升高而越发明显,这是因为随着纬度的升高,猎物资源越趋单一,于是生存的希望完全仰仗技术工具的有效性,所以必须加大技术投入以提高工具的功效。而在南方,食物种类多,互补性强,而且大部分食物为植物,在采集利用上没有时间压力,所以缺乏改善技术和工具的动力。同样,随着人类的定居和流动性减少,生存方式和食物资源发生变化,以前那种要求精致技术的时间压力也随之消失,人们自然也就转向权宜性的石器技术。从这篇文章我们可以体会到人类学理论在考古材料解释上的价值,从生态适应来研究史前技术的差异和变迁,能够使我们从类型学的分析转向对人类行为的深入了解,从而能更好地进行历史的重建。     

Zooarchaeological perspectives on the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic from the Ma’anshan site (Guizhou,South China)

Ma’anshan is a Paleolithic cave site in the Guizhou province of southern China. The total area of the excavations is ca. 48 m², and the cultural deposit is divided into two layers representing the Chinese Late Paleolithic and the later part of the Early Paleolithic. The upper layer dates between 19,295  BP and 31,155 BP by AMS technique, and the lower layer is dated to around 53,000 BP by U-Series technique. Thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the two layers. Species abundance, bone surface modifications, skeletal element representation, and mortality patterns were studied in an investigation of assemblage formation history and patterns of prey selection and meat consumption by hominins. Interpretations of the faunal data are strengthened by reference to experimental studies and ethnoarchaeological data. The zooarchaeological data indicate that the later occupants of Ma’anshan Cave hunted mainly medium and small game animals, while the earlier occupants tended to prey upon larger animals. In the later period, hominins also made fuller use of the carcasses. The breadth of the meat diet increased with time, due to the inclusion of quick small animals (bamboo rats and birds) in the later period. The differences between the two faunal assemblages are consistent with the chronologic boundary currently drawn between the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic ca. 30–27 ka BP, based on technological and other evidence.     

‘Patriotic Femininity’: Women's Morals and Men's Morale During the Second World War

The Second World War was a period which witnessed struggles for the definitions of appropriate ‘patriotic’ feminine identities and behaviours as much as it placed demands on men and their masculinities. The disruption to normality led to a heightened sense of heterosexuality. There were contests for the definition of femininity, contests which contradicted the centrality of discourses constructing domesticity and passivity. The way history has been constructed the heroic myths of the Second World War are male, thus there is a need for other kinds of critical knowledge to provide an understanding of women's lives and another, feminine, kind of heroism.